WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1843
381
official conduct. I hope you will at once perceive the attitude in which I am placed by the publication of such charges. In the last paragraph also, of the letter referred to, you are represented as saying, in reference to the extent of your projects under the law referred to: "Nor with a force sufficient would I ever shelter myself as the President has heretofore done, from crossing the enemy's boundary line, under a doctrine which has been so fully exploded in our mother country," &c. If it be true that you penned this, it must have been intended as a reflection upon the President for not yielding to an ebulition of public feeling instead of pursuing his own sense of duty; and I feel myself called upon to deny that I ever sheltered myself under any doctrine exploded in our mother country. My veto to the "War bill" as it was called, at the extra session of Congress last summer, embraced among the reasons for not sanctioning the contemplated measure, the consideration of the subject of our militia crossing into the enemy's territory. Where doctrines are governed by constitutional provisions, they might apply in the United States when they would not in Texas which could only be determined by the nature and provisions of the respective constitutions. By reference to my veto, it will be discovered that I asserted the fact that the principle could no where be found in our constitution; as applied to the practicability of compelling militia to go contrary to public sentiment and their own inclinations into a war of invasion. This was not taking shelter under a doctrine; it was arraying myself in the panopy of the constitution of the country. The same question has been discussed in Congress, and protests entered by Senators against the passage of the bill, upon the very ground of the unconstitu- tionality of compelling the militia to march beyond our own avowed limits. If the question has ever been settled or exploded in the United States, I have not been apprised of the fact. Soldiers who enlist in the regular army form a different kind of troops. They are recognized as members of ·the army who have entered into a positive compact with the Government to obey this Executive and officers appointed over them; and it is no matter with them whether they act within or without the limits of the nation. They are subject to orders either on land or sea; and no question can be entertained as to how far their obligations extend. However just or politic a provision in the constitution might be, under which the militia of the country should be com- pelled to bear arms beyond our limits, I do not pretend to discuss.
Powered by FlippingBook